Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, why did those squirrels have to pick my house to build their nest?

That thought has crossed my mind continuously over the past weeks as I waited first for Peco and then for Critter Control.

But the waiting is over.

Shortly after Peco left, the Critter Control tech called (I had sent email to let them know that Peco was here) to say he was on his way.

When he arrived he quickly closed up one hole.

And he set about putting a one-way door in the other hole.

 

And he set traps out back. He said he couldn’t leave the traps in the front “because this is Philly.” He baited them with peanut butter.

He told me a fellow would be coming around every day to check the traps.

About an hour after he left I went out back and saw that a squirrel had managed to pull the cardboard with the peanut butter out of the smaller trap without getting caught.

But there was much squealing and squawking coming from the other larger trap that had ensnared two very angry squirrels.

I tried to get someone to come for them yesterday but to no avail.

First thing this morning I checked on the squirrels, and they had calmed down and were cuddling next to each other presumably to keep warm.

When the fellow, Michael was his name, came to check the traps around 10:00 AM, the squirrels were active again, but now one of them was very subdued, apparently it had taken too much of a beating from the other one. It was in a very sad condition. Michael said he had never seen two trapped in the same cage before. And he promised to get them to a new home as quickly as possible.

He left two new baited traps and re-baited the one that the squirrel had defeated by stealing the bait without getting caught. Michael said he might be able to come more than once a day depending, so I said I’d text him when I saw that any trap was full.

I also asked him about trapping squirrels myself. If I trapped a squirrel and took it to, say, Penn’s Landing, would that be far enough away to keep it from returning to this neighborhood? He said probably, as squirrels don’t travel very far, and even a mile is probably far enough.

Good to know.